


in absence of light

by simplycarryon



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, even more cheesy friendfluff, late-game spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-27 02:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5030704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplycarryon/pseuds/simplycarryon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The darkness is oppressive, heavy with hideous promise, and your ears ring in the silence that not even the sound of your footsteps can subdue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in absence of light

It’s dark in the underground lab. Also cold, and dusty enough that your eyes go watery and your nose itches with an intensity that you despise in the sneeziest of ways, but mostly it’s just dark. 

You handle it okay, in the beginning. You’ve never been great in the dark, but you stick to the wall, running a hand along its grimy surface to lead yourself in the near-blackness. Alphys can’t be too far in front of you; she must know where the lights are. All you have to do is find her, or follow her trail, or something. She’ll figure out the rest.

The first screen on the wall nearly gives you a heart attack when it activates, generating a tiny sphere of light near your hand. You jerk backwards, out of its radius, and clutch uselessly at your chest; your heartbeat thunders in your ears, a roaring testimony to your cowardice.

You proceed anyway, when your heart calms down a little. You wish for a flashlight, a torch, a packet of matches—anything that might give you a little light, keep you from walking blindly into whatever mysteries the lab might hold. You try your phone light for a little bit, but that drains the battery alarmingly fast, and you can’t really afford to let it dwindle to nothing. (Who knows where you’ll find the next monster phone charging station.)

The darkness is oppressive, heavy with hideous promise, and your ears ring in the silence that not even the sound of your footsteps can subdue.

You try singing to yourself. It comes out tiny and trembling, an unsteady song-whisper that sounds nothing like you intend it to. You wish you sounded fearless and strong. You wish you could sing at the top of your lungs, chasing away the darkness with your courage, driving back the silence and the emptiness and filling it with the resounding strength of your soul. But you are small, and afraid, and you can’t even bring yourself to do more than squeak out a few notes before you stop.

It’s just darkness, you tell yourself, fear boiling at your center, eating away at your will to keep going. Just darkness. You shouldn’t be afraid of the dark. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You're here on a mission and it's important and you try to remember that. 

You’re not some big hero, though, and courage is hard. You have a stick and an old bandage. You’re in the dark, and you’re alone, and you’re _afraid._

You almost don’t recognize your phone’s chirpy ringtone, the cheery sound startlingly loud in the suffocating quiet. You’re surprised your phone has any signal at all, down here, but you fumble blindly for it anyway and bring it to your ear.

“Hello?” you ask, very small.

“HUMAN!” Papyrus shouts from the earpiece. The familiar sound of his voice brings hot tears to your eyes; you scrub them away quickly with the heel of your hand. “I thought maybe you could use an encouraging phone call! Because sometimes we all need one of those!!”

“They’re doing fine, whatever they’re doing!” Undyne says, somewhere in the background. You hear her lean in, knocking heads with Papyrus as she barges in on the call. “If they needed our help they’d call! Right, punk??”

“Y-yeah,” you stammer, smiling despite yourself.

“Well, whatever you’re doing, be encouraged!!”

“We’ll always be here for you, kid! Even if we have to break everything in the kingdom to get to you! ESPECIALLY if we have to do that!”

“We’ll break anything! Maybe a window!! Maybe even the law!!!” 

“YEAH!! SCREW LAWS!!!!”

You laugh, and you glance down the darkened corridor that looms in front of you. Maybe it’s just your imagination, but you feel like it isn’t quite as dark now; there’s something about the sound of your friends yelling encouragement in your ear that makes everything just a little less daunting.

“Um,” you say, cutting their escalating shouting match off; they fall completely silent, hanging on your every word. “Would you mind… staying on the line with me? Just for a little bit?”

“Everything okay?” Undyne asks. You can hear the concern in her voice, the sound of someone gearing up to wade through hell and high water for you, and it makes you feel a little stronger. 

“I think so,” you reply. It’s an honest answer. “I have to do this.”

“We’ll be here the entire time!!” Papyrus assures you, giving you an audible thumbs up. “We can also come find you if you want! I, the great Papyrus, am excellent at finding humans!!”

“That’s okay.” You take a deep breath. “I just… need to know you’re there.”

“Well then!” he says, sounding pleased. “I will keep talking for as long as it takes you to feel better, tiny human! For example: I will tell you what we’re doing right now! Undyne and I are making spaghetti!!”

“For the last time, Papyrus, we’re making a cake!”

“Right! Out of spaghetti!”

“OH MY GOD?? DOES THIS LOOK LIKE PASTA TO YOU, BONEHEAD???”

“ANYTHING’S PASTA IF YOU DREAM HARD ENOUGH!!”

“… TRUE!!!”

You smile to yourself and press your free hand to the wall beside you, making your way slowly through the near-blackness of the lab. Occasionally you even listen to whatever it is they’ve decided to talk about; mostly you just let them talk. 

Their voices keep you grounded, remind you that you are not alone.


End file.
